change

I am not as old as the 2nd republic, but the little history has taught me revealed that every general election in Nigeria gears up specific themes targeted at reviving the nation. However, there is never a period within these timeline that these themes have pragmatically stood their course. The 1979’s Green Revolution; 1993’s Hope campaign, 1999’s Power Agenda, the 2011’s 7-point Agenda, 2015’s transformation Agenda and the 2015’s Change Mantra. 2019 is around the corner and we are planning to sing a new song.

Our cry for ‘Change’ in 2015 was amazing. Everyone seriously wanted a real change in the then status quo of in orderliness. Our politicians saw the anxiety; picked it up and personalized it. It superbly got them the key to the Aso Villa and ‘Power’ succinctly conceded to ‘Change’. The problem wasn’t in the mantra but in the lack of direction and motif. Now the change we all wanted becomes wavy to handle. ‘Change the Change’ is the counter slogan to employ.

Only suddenly have we now discovered scattered reasons and facts on why we cant co-exist with one another. The Cat and Dog story have been revived to suit their aim. The germane issues of governance are left unattended to and accusing fingers are pointed at one another. Nigeria is a made up of 6 geo-political zones and (amazingly) 5 out of it are feeling cheated and segregated by the only one. As it stands, secession is the new threat in town. Continue reading →

To lead is to conquer;
Verily, the Masters are Doctoring the philosophy.
So firm they stand their reign.
Their crafty-trickish spears spare no one.
Sadly, the quest to conquer
Have misplaced their desire to lead.

In the lead to conquer,
They were favored by your manipulative thumbs.
Those favors have indexed them into various positions of honor.
But like forgotten stories,
The sights of their middle fingers flaunted at you with pride
Is more than bizarre.

The new facets have them pitched against one another;
And the innocent ‘you’ will prolly be the mercenary.
You had thought they would actually fight for your course.
Maliciously, the reverse is the case.
Sorry, the Change agenda is on hold;
We have a bigger Chase to mould.

To lead requires strength, wisdom and desire.
To conquer; just own the masses.
They are readied instruments with little or no knowlege about the rivalry.
For as long as you have them,
Your rivals’ best tactics can only take them as far as a lid behind lead.
Surely, To lead is to conquer…

President Buhari isn’t in China for nothing. Guess what? Nigeria to become clearinghouse for the Yuan denominated transactions in the whole Of Africa following the new Agreement
.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele moved closer to actualizing their promise to strengthen the naira against the United States dollars by signing a landmark currency deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd on Tuesday in Beijing, China.

The agreement will allow Nigerian traders and businesses, which imports mainly from China conclude their transactions in the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the dollar.

It was also gathered that the new agreement would see Nigeria-China trades, which accounts for over 70 percent of imports into Nigeria, concluded in the Yuan.

Until now over 90 percent of international trades between Nigeria and the world is done in dollars, and in the process putting so much pressure on the naira. Nigeria imports almost all it needs from the West, Middle East and Asia.

The CBN is expected to diversify a huge chunk of Nigeria’s foreign reserve from the dollars to the Yuan to perfect the agreement.

“It means that the renminbi (Yuan) is free to flow among different banks in Nigeria, and the renminbi has been included in the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria,” Lin Songtian, director general of the African affairs department of China’s foreign ministry, told reporters in Beijing a few minutes after the agreement was signed between the Governors of the nations’ reserve banks in the presence of President Buhari and President Xi Jingping of China, who is hosting Buhari and top Nigerian officials to a state visit.

Lin said a framework on currency swaps has been agreed with Nigeria, making it easier to settle trade deals in Yuan. China has signed currency swap deals with countries ranging from Kazakhstan to Argentina as it promotes wider use of its Yuan.

Beijing also signed agreements to develop infrastructure in Nigeria, part of a drive to deepen its ties with Africa. It has offered Nigeria a loan worth $6 billion to fund infrastructure projects.

Also, ICBC signed a $2 billion loan deal with Dangote group, the company owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, to fund two cement plants it plans to build, Lin told Reuters.

China’s official Xinhua news agency cited President Xi as telling Buhari that there was huge potential for economic cooperation, naming oil refining and mining.

Nigeria is also considering issuing Panda bonds (mainly Yuan denominated) as against euro bonds because they are cheaper.

This heading above however, reminds me of a reckoning paragraph from an ancient speech of a former British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to the parliament of South Africa on 3rd febuary 1960 precisely in capetown. He said and I quote:

“The wind of change is blowing through this continent. (Africa), wether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”

What a wonderful speech it was. And, indeed, it is enough to serve as a message to Nigerians in her present state. A yoruba adage says, the truth can take up to twenty years before it reveals itself.

In Nigeria today, the wind of change (I don’t mean APC neither do I mean Buhari) is blowing very hard. So many anuses have been exposed. Hidden truths have seen the hunter’s search light. We are now beginning to see truth from different perspectives. We now know the looters, the looted and the conspiracy theories surrounding it. Thanks to the wind of change. Now, what exactly is the wind of change?

The wind of change is the sudden growth in the spirit of ‘national consciousness’. The amazing level of participation that we witnessed in the widely accepted ‘2015 elections in Nigeria is the wind of Change. A momentum that ‘changed’ the face of many events and status in the country. Some untouchable got touched, undisputed got disputed, un-jailable got jailed. Infact, undockable got docked afterwards. From gubernatorials to senatorials to presidential, this sudden growth in the national consciousness flogged some weak hands out of office and installed the desired.

Before the elections, it was obvious how the ship of the Nigerian nation was heading for an unavoidable cataract. How we embarked on a cataclysmic sojourning. Amazing enough, our then leaders kept telling us that we were growing and ‘moving forward’. But we couldn’t still see were we going. Like the popular King Sunny Ade’s track, we don’t know what direction our driver was driving either forward or backward.

Unsung events of corrupt cases and allegations were swept under the carpet. Money laundering on the high. Insecurity and the weak steps geared to tackle them. Yet all they could show for it was a paper statement of progress that Nigeria is the fastest growing economy in the continent when the Nigerians are being battered by the rain of poverty and joblessness. Even the umbrella could shield us no more.

Well, I had always believed aunt Ngozi when she said though. But I had thought to myself then that if truly we were ‘growing’, then it meant some goats were busy eating our laboured yams. Then Nigeria was left to be like a less fueled engine. This smelting activities made Nigerians wake up. Nigerians began to voice out their inner pains to the extent that they over abused the right to free expression. Series of unguarded statements and insults were directed to public office holders not excluding the C-in-C. Infact, he took the larger share. This is what I tagged the the ‘awkward moment before the wind of change’.

The great wind of change, moreover, came knocking as it was again time to display our democratic strength and vigor. To vote and elect the who that we feel is deserving to lead us to the promise land. And, infact, I most say, I have never seen Nigerians so committed to elections like that of 2015. It happens regularly before this, that Nigerians are always lukewarmed towards election exercises. Because, judging by the permutations, incumbency and ‘power’, we can already guess whom our new leader is. But obviously, 2015 was a difference.

Alas! The wind of change brought with it a mantra. We saw Nigerians well devoted to their struggles. Series of political decamping and sagacity were seen from every end of the divide. One would have believed that, according to the prophecy, Nigeria was ready to divide. Political parties threatening and displaying their strengths, stampedes at rallies, religious sentiments invoked. But to be candid, have never seen Nigerians this dedicated.

Surprisingly, elections were followed up until declarations. I remembered seeing a market woman in a market sitting close to her shade with her big casio calculator, a free sheet of paper and a radio set. She was busy solving and calculating election results along with the returning electoral officers that she forgot she was suppose to be busy attending to customers. I had to tap her to recover because I needed to buy from her. I also remember one of my lecturers back then who cancelled a scheduled test just to sit comfortably in his office watching live the election announcements. Infact, my fear back then was that if Jega had mistakenly inflated the results by just one vote, Nigerians will immediately start to call for his immediate impeachment. Atleast, the Orubebe incidence was an apotheosis. Collectively, this is what I call the wind of change.

The elections, however, were done and announced. And Nigerians were excited and happy as if it was the first time they had duely exercised their franchise. They had voted for their man and flushed out the incumbent. It was a indeed a remarkable celebration both home and abroad.
Therefore, now that we have the wind of change, we have a General turned president (Muhammadu Buhari). Haven contested four times before achieving this feet. He is seen as a man of vision, vigour, and passion. He is now seen as the ‘change’ te\he wind has brought. Thus, Nigerians had expected he will ‘hit the ground running’.

Against all odds, upon inauguration, the General had slowed down a bit before steadily moving. This had earned him a new title of ‘Baba go slow’. However, he had claimed he had inherited a poor and bad policy. And so needs time to fix it. As the wind of change would have it, this has generated mixed reactions from the public. But good or bad, the administration has been busy weakening the wind of change.

Though, I will commend its efforts for the blowing whistles. I will commend them for its anti corruption wars. I will commend them for the probes even in a period when Nigeria is facing a scrabbled economy. But on the other side, I will also condemn them in their struggle to weakening the blazing wind of change. I will condemn them in their attempt to keep Nigerians shut and mute. Let us talk and speak our mind. Remember, democracy is the right to shout, ‘listen to us’.

Like I said earlier, this administration has been relatively remarkable in its struggle. So far so good, we now know the goats disturbing our yams. As far as am concerned, it is a good cause. Dasuki will still tell us more, Diezani will still confess. Infact, Obj will still point fingers. But the real question is – for how long will these continue? When are we going to look forward?

Some will align with this longtime view of mine that if this administration will do nothing except for fighting corruption throughout the tenure, as long as he does it democratically, they got my thumps up already. I mean it will be necessary to clean up a stained bucket thoroughly before a fresh water is fetched. It will even send a cautioning signal to prospective thefts.
But good for us though, I just hope the 2016 appropriation bill which have been widely adjudged to be a good budget will bail us out of the economy. A budget of about 2.2 trillion dollars borrowing to be made? Lets pray this dwindling oil price will come to our rescue. The administration’s success over insurgency and terrorism also calls for a kudos. We hope to have the long last laugh.

In conclusion, as against some people’s claim that a particular political party or individual is the change Nigeria crave, the wind of change is the wake in the national consciousness towards the governance of the country. The sudden rise in the spirit of the electorate to make their choice and stand by it. This change brought with it dedication and commitment and I don’t think any government should be allowed to kill this spirit. It is our right to talk. Every government should give chance to the wailing wailers. After all, there is no good governance without a strong opposition. Let’s keep the wind of change blowing; it is our only tool now.
Ola-lawal Muzzamil Oladayo is a freelance (creative) writer who believes in the power of the ink. He uses his works not only to correct wrongs in society but also to inspire creativity and productivity in humanity. He is a graduate of Linguistics from the University of Ilorin.

WHERE ARE PARENTS OF THIS GENERATION?
Even though the society is full of women parading
themselves at all fronts, aspiring to become the next
rulers of the world, all that is regarded as women
emancipation and attainment of absolute freedom
for the female gender today, it is very saddening to
note that the fundamental roles of every mother are
mostly failed. Most parents have lost their primary
roles to the secondary, and the vacuum is adversely
being felt. The reason why youths of this generation
are short of intrinsic etiquettes and moral standards
is nothing but the fact that they are not well doctored
from home. The modern world has subjected most
young ones to counter-productive parental guides.
And in spite of all attempts by education, movies,
books and lectures from both traditional and modern
institutions to address this menace, the situation
rather to improve, is getting worse!
This piece is an impelled reaction to an article I read
recently on “PARENTING.” From what I read, I must
say categorically that the issue of parenting needs to
be well checked and re-addressed as a matter of
urgency.
Whenever a child is found misbehaving, he’s always
examined from the background. Even those that are
seen to be performing encouragingly well, the point
of reference still remains their parental corner. When
parents (mothers particularly) who are saddled with
the responsibility of feeding young ones with good
mannerisms by taking them by their hands in order
to embed them with endearing moral values are
MISSING ON DUTY, then what do we expect of the
future?
The greatest concern to every mother now is their
career. Every woman wants to become more than a
cook and a baby-producing factory. Everyone is
desirous to become CEO, Landlady, President etc.
Some even wants to become husbands of other
women. Imagine! By all these however, we
uncontrollably loose our wards to wallow in abject
lack of proper welfare and the parental upbringing
every child is due to get from home.
In the name of westernization and unruly
civilizations, our morals are sub-changed, or bluntly
saying, lost. Yet the African society which is globally
known for rich cultures and moral standards isn’t
seeing it as a big deal. We are unconsciously been
carried away by modernity to the extent that our
mother tongues are all fading into extinction!
Sadly saying, I know of many parents who brag about
their children’s inability to communicate in their own
mother’s language. The reason is not far-fetched; we
all want our children to be the most adorable
speakers of the colonial language. Several times I’ve
come to ask them, does that in anyway enhance their
productivity as promising youths of our nations?
Does it even make them infallible writers or the best
grammarians? I doubt it!
I doubt if there are any writers in Nigeria who have
surpassed the remarkable feats of the likes of Wole
Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, etc. These models, I must
say, have done nothing but used foreign languages to
communicate the entrenched values of our land to
the world. Upon their exposure and global
experience, they refused to sell their rights to any
foreign culture.
Dear reader, the only way to revive our homes and
return it a productive classroom that is firstly
contacted by every single child is to ensure that the
new generation parents get back to their primary
obligation. No woman is stopped from attaining
heights of successes in life, but immediately that
comes at the expense of our future generations, then
the success is vain.
Every mother must take up the responsibility of
educating their children/wards, instilling enviable
morals in them, spending good and quality time with
them, showing them the path of God and
exemplifying imitable characters for them to imbibe.
Parents of this century must stop trading their
maternal responsibilities for career goals.
Ensuring a fulfilling future for the youth of this
generation is a worthy career every woman must
pursue!
By:
Imam Lawal Ummulikhaeri (UMMU)
Vice President,
University of Ilorin,
Students’ Union.

In the world of today, it has been amazingly observed how so many things have had to conform to a uniformed way of life and practice. This century has seen and accommodated drastic and amazing development. This is not without the impact of science, technology and the new media. Obviously, the world has now become a global village; the effect of these development to humanity has been felt both positively and negatively. The lingering question, however, is about which of the effects is winning; the former or the latter.

Moreover, the truth of the matter is that science, technology and new media has brought about series of creative and innovative change to help humanitarian services in various societies. We can now spy at other countries to get quality services, goods, trending values and even policies in which are lagging in our own society to build or supplement ours. On the other hand, it is about the rate at which this phenomenon is militating and endangering the prosperity of some certain community (weaker and developing nation to be precise). These Nations have lost their values, norms, traditions, policies and administrative competence to globalization thereby crippling the effectiveness of their sense of planning. In such communities, any attempt to unify or solidify their interests is belittled if it doesn’t conform to this globa-foreign way of life; them don sell their right give oyinbo. And even these so-called ‘oyinbos’ remain in their confines and press different information to ridicule our () existence. Yet, we keep following them like the zombies.

Developing nations are now abandoning their homemade policies (either good or bad) to adopt foreign ones due their high rate of acceptability or generality. Series of situations like this can be found in the way African countries desperately crave for the adoption of some alien governmental and administrative policy either workable or not. But one thing they have failed to understand is that no matter how smart and effective a cutlass is on the farm, it can never serve better than a knife in the kitchen. Some indigenous policies will still remain the best practice in some situations no matter the circumstance. For instance, no matter what effort or strategy you employ, a date seed or a mustard seed will never germinate in anywhere in Nigeria. A date seed grows only on an Arabian soil while the mustard seed grows in Israel.

In essence, because a particular policy is working in a particular society doesn’t necessarily mean it will also work for you as well. In Africa, our failure is not in the ineffectiveness of our leaders, But in the ineffectiveness of the adopted system of governance there in. Therefore, we shouldn’t just adopt. We should look closely, considering every circumstances along the line, in the structure of your society and figure out what will best conform to the system before selection. This is one stance our African Nationalists are failing to manage. And it is the earlier, the better.

The painstaking fact is that, amidst all these falls and all in the name of globalization, or maybe it’s in order to continue to prove their dominance, these European countries will still continue do everything possible to make sure that their killer policies are still being used in these troubled Nations; isnt this a wound on humanitarianism? They will, in turns, come all out to claim the superiority of their policies over other policies and how they have been using it successfully for decades/ century. Then they will make all sure that it is enforced on the nations they feel they can influence. Perhaps, with the flimsy help of the world governing bodies (United Nation or NATO) of which they relatively dominate. I think we need to begin to break out of our shells. We need to start sending them parking before they successfully ruin us for their own selfish benefit. Let’s stop their neo-colonialism influence. We have come of age, Africa.

Well, let me send a message down to the so called Superiors. Without prejudice or dispute sirs, these theories and policies of yours have been a great success in your respective place of dominance, but the base still remains that the fact that it work for you doesn’t mean it will work for all. The better you understand that It will not always be applicable to every country. Forcing it on these countries will only make it look like an imposition. So it will be better for you, and for them, to leave these countries to make their decisions on their own. Definitely, you can render some help by recommending to them your policies but don’t try to force it on them.

Through my little experience in the big field of philosophy, I have also come to understand that it is going to be an error for you to bend your data to suit your theory. Rather, you should bend or adjust your theory (if possible) to suit your data. And if that wont solve the problem, then go for another workable theory. The moral behind it is that you cant bend the structural settings of your country to suit a foreign policy rather you should adjust this policy (if possible) to suit the country’s structure. Or better still, go for another policy or system that will best defined the structure of the country. In everything, the environment of occurrence is of very great importance.

As a case study, we should (first) critically look at the application of democracy to governance and administration and how effective it has been generally. Then thereafter take a close shove at its effect in developing African Nations like Nigeria.

Democracy, no doubt, is a blossom and encouraging way of choosing political leaders. It is, according to Oxford English Dictionary, ‘a system of governance in which all people of a state or polity … are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly’. It is popularly referred to as ‘the government of the people by the people and for the people’. But, believe you-me, as sweet as the policy/system might sound, its got lapses; fatal ones at that. No wonder, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk of Czechoslovakia is well remembered for his quote on democracy translated as thus;

‘democracy has its faults, because people have their faults. Like the owner, like the store’
This quote explains as well part of the mishaps encountered in democratic politics. Since it is the government of the people, the masses’ decisions should always be right. Am sorry but there some instances when this masses will be outrightly wrong on some issues, yet the government will have to go the wrong way even when it is obvious they will fail. The responsibility of this failure, however, will not be the masses’ but the leaders in power. What an irony!

By the way, do the masses really think they own this government? How can you when the only power you have is just the ability to exercise your bragging right to choose your representatives only periodically; a fit that can even be jeopardized by just an unfree and unfair election. The real politics and politicking are done only by those few people alone. So where is the ‘government by the people’? Don’t let us deceive ourselves all in the name of ‘democracy’. We know how it is being run. In Nigeria, it is more of a communist society than of the real democracy.

To go down memory lane, Democracy is a system of government that was first tested in the Greek government during the time of antiquity. It, however, went through various transformation and development before its legal adoption by the Americans. Due to its special pedigree, it became trusted over the years for better and accurate result. So many countries have adopted this system all around the globe. Even when it is obvious that is hitting and breaking them deep inside, knowingly or unknowingly, some unfavored nations still hold on to it. Little do they know that they are gorgeously guarding the timed grenade so to say. Well, I may be wrong though.

In this light, Nigeria, arguably the most populous black nation in the world, is a very good example. Over the years, this practice had failed to yield us desirable result yet we are still of a great hope that, one day, it will flourish. Maybe yes maybe not, but I see democracy as a system that isnt capable of catering our structural needs as a nation with diverse human culture and belief. Pardon me if am wrong, but Democracy isn’t a system designed to suit a nation like Nigeria. Let’s begin to think outside the box.

I know the next thing that pops up inside of your medulla, after reading this excerpt, will be to begin to query the acceptability of this article. ‘is he really saying democracy isnt good for us?’, or ‘does he really mean we should give the army a chance? If yes, I doubt if his father was alive back then to witness the terrors of the then military regime’. If these are thoughts, all I will say with a big smile on my face will be to ask some simple and common-sensical questions;

• Are there not other system of government of governance aside democracy and military? If no, then why don’t we give them a check?Nb; given them a ‘check’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘adoption’ but, first, a critical review with our structure.

• Why do we keep training people in institutions to study courses like political science, economics, law, geography, linguistics, sociology etc if we cant give them a chance to work out policies and systems other than the oyinbo dumped ones? Are you saying Africans aint got brains? Must we always follow the oyinbo laid down theories even if they aint workable?
And so after taking all these steps of review, if we still believe or find democracy to be the only workable system to fit the structure of Nigeria, then so be it. But in the meantime, its obvious we need to go back to that drawing board.

I hope this article will serve as a wake-up call for Nigerians and Africa at large. But in the meantime, I shall display (with facts and evidence) in my next post why I believed this democracy of a policy is failing us in this part of the world. Anticipate…